


Some People Aren't Cat People, Except When They Are

by PaxieAmor



Series: As Seen By Sophie [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: I like kittens, M/M, More Kitten Cuteness, kittens are cool
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-21
Updated: 2013-04-21
Packaged: 2017-12-09 01:51:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/768580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PaxieAmor/pseuds/PaxieAmor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone seems to like Sophie, save for one person; Tony wants to find out why.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Some People Aren't Cat People, Except When They Are

About a month ago, if you would have said that Tony Stark would have fallen head over heels in love with a half foot fluff ball, Tony Stark would have laughed hysterically in your face.

Saying that five seconds ago, however, would get you a look that plainly asked if you wanted to make something of it.

Sophie had snuggled her way into the hearts of just about everyone who lived in the tower; Tony now knows more about cats than anyone knew possible. He knows all about feline leukemia, has all of Sophie's vet appointments in no less than three different schedules (his, Pepper's and Steve's, but Jarvis is programmed to remind them as well and no one living in Stark Tower would be surprised to find out that the appointments have been put in their schedules as well) and Stark Industries may be starting a line of high tech pet toys that he and Sophie test personally, but it’s not like anyone's keeping track.

Steve likes sketching Sophie and she seems to like posing for him. He's compiled an entire sketchbook of just Sophie and Pepper's suggested he do a children's book or a comic about her.

"Sophie's a lot cuter than Garfield and she probably has better adventures," Pepper insists. Steve says he'll think about it.

Speaking of Pepper, she tends to talk to Sophie about work and Tony and Steve and anything that comes to mind. She also tends to act like Sophie's answering her, which would be worrying if everyone didn't think that she probably was.

Clint uses the feline as a type of target practice, shooting Nerf arrows in her general direction (but not actually at her) and laughing hysterically when she jumps up at the arrows as they fly past. She started catching them about a week into the game, and at first she would bring them back to him. Recently, however, she's started running off with them and Clint has yet to figure out where they end up.

Thor still talks to her all the time, translates for her and is attempting to help Tony create a collar for Sophie that will do the talking for him. Some of his favorite moments, however, are those when Sophie says nothing at all, just comes into his room and curls up on his chest.

The Hulk adores Sophie. No one is more surprised by this than Bruce Banner. Sophie, who is spoiled rotten when it comes to food but somehow hasn't grown at all, is small and fluffy and when Bruce had an accidental Hulkisode in the living room, she saw no reason to not stroll over to the large green human and rub against his legs. The Hulk seemed surprised at first, looking down curiously at the animal, who merely looked back up at him and purred. Tony, having been alerted by Jarvis, found them sitting on the floor about five minutes later; Hulk had found a string somewhere (Tony wasn't going to bother trying to figure out where) and was dangling it so Sophie could bat at it. 

It was simultaneously the cutest and most frightening thing in the world, and Sophie was immediately put on “Hulk Relaxation” duty.

Natasha would never admit it, but she too is quite fond of the kitten. Every now and then, Tony will see Sophie playing with a toy that he knows he didn’t buy, or she’ll be wearing a cute collar that he didn’t put on her. If he was completely honest about it, the one with the bell had been a brilliant idea, really; being so small and her fur being so dark lead to Sophie to be almost invisible, and the bell countered that slightly. No one would claim responsibility for the collars, but Steve mentioned in bed one night (has Tony mentioned how lucky he is to have _both_ Pepper Potts and Steve Rogers sleeping with him?) that he saw Sophie curled up in Natasha’s lap while the redhead read in one of the sitting rooms. The kitten purred happily and the assassin smiled fondly. All three of them decided to never bring it up.

The only person who didn’t seem to like Sophie, strangely, was Coulson. Coulson, who was normally completely unshakable, avoided Sophie like she was infected with the kitty plague. Of course, it’s often the nature of cats to hang out in places they shouldn’t and with people who don’t want them around, which is why she’s always the first to greet Coulson when he comes home and tends to follow him around like she’s shackled to him for a while, mewing the entire time. Curious, Tony pulled up footage of one of these instances and got Thor to translate it for him.

“Hello Mr. Coulson!” Sophie had said, running up to the agent and rubbing against his legs as he exited the elevator on the residential floor. “How was your day, Mr. Coulson?” Coulson walks away from her, but she keeps scampering after him. “I chased Dummy around the shop today and I almost caught him! He’s so fast and my legs are really short. Pepper thinks I might be a munchkin cat? What’s a munchkin cat? Do they go ‘munch’ instead of ‘meow’?” Coulson makes his way towards the room he shares with Clint and Sophie skips along behind him. “Mr. Coulson, Clint says that you’re good at finding stuff! Are you really good at finding stuff, Mr. Coulson? Because I…” Sophie is still scampering behind him, but her mews have gained a distinct sorrowed note. “I want to find my Momma…”

It’s not Sophie’s revelation that surprises Tony; he’s suspected that she might want to find her mother for almost as long as she’s been here. The way that she gets excited over certain cats on TV—calicos with more black and orange than white—and starts mewing, leaping up to the TV and pawing at the cats, only to walk off sadly when the commercial changes. It doesn’t surprise Tony at all that Sophie wants to find her mother.

What surprises him is how Coulson tensed slightly when Sophie said she wanted to find her mother. It’s not long, barely a second, but it’s long enough for Tony to catch it.

Sophie had stopped at the doorway of Coulson’s room, not setting even a toe inside, talking about what her mother looked like, where Sophie had last seen her, when that had been…

“It’s not that I want to leave!” Sophie said quickly, her tiny paws kneading the carpet nervously. “I love it here with everyone and Tony is great and I love him… but I miss my Momma, Mr. Coulson… and I just wanna make sure she’s okay. Can you help me?” Coulson didn’t say anything; just goes over to the door and pushes it shut. Sophie looks at the door for a moment, her little black tail swishing back and forth. She mewed sadly, but Thor didn’t translate it.

“What’d she say?” Tony asked, watching the demi-god hesitate. “Thor, what did she say?”

“She said ‘I’m sorry for bothering you again’,” Thor replied. “Poor little dear.”

“Again?” Tony looked at the timestamp on the feed; yesterday. “Let’s go back a little farther, Thor, I want to see something.” They went back through the past few weeks and every day was the same; Sophie would great Coulson at the door, talk to him about her day and then ask him in the same way help her find her mother. Coulson would respond in the same way.

“I would assume,” Thor said carefully, “that it would not be easy to find a specific feline in a city of this size?”

“Yeah,” Tony agreed. There were no databases for feline DNA or paw prints, and honestly, there was no way that anyone, even Coulson, would be able to find Sophie’s mother. He shook his head and changed over to the live feed.

“What are you doing?” Thor asked.

“Sophie said she wouldn’t bother him again,” Tony replied as Coulson exited the elevator. “Let’s see what she does today.” Tony watched as Coulson waited just outside the elevator door, looking around in silence.

“Sophie?” he called. “Sophie, here girl…” It took a few minutes, and a few kiss-like sounds from Coulson, but the kitten soon padded into the room, sitting down at Coulson’s feet.

“Hello, Mr. Coulson,” Sophie said, with translations from Thor who stated that she sounded sadder than she normally did. Coulson bent down and scooped her up, holding her close to his chest as he stroked her fur gently.

“I’m sorry, Sophie,” he said softly. “But I can’t find her… I tried…” Sophie started licking his cheek.

“Its okay, Mr. Coulson,” she replied. “Don’t be sad…” Tony watched in awe as Coulson carried Sophie to the living room and sat down with her. She curled up in his lap and purred contentedly as Coulson scratched her behind the ears.

“How does he understand her?” Thor asked.

“Knowing Coulson, he probably has some sort of universal translator in his ear piece,” Tony replied. He then left the security room and went straight to the living room. Coulson looked up at him; Sophie yawned and rolled onto her back. “Never pegged you to be a cat person.”

“Cuteness seems to be her super power and my kryptonite,” Coulson replied with a shrug. “That a problem?”

“Nope. And you can understand her?”

“Universal translator in my ear piece.” Coulson raised an eyebrow. “Are you stalking me now?”

“Yeah, kinda.” He took a seat in his favorite chair, watching as Coulson continued petting Sophie. “You seriously looked for her mom.”

“She misses her.”

“Going to keep looking?”

“Of course. I don’t know what good it’ll do, but yeah. I’m going to keep looking.” Tony nodded.

“Cool, let me know if you need help.” He got up and left the room before Coulson could reply; he wanted to get that translator collar done for Sophie so he could hear her voice for once and not the voice Thor gave to her.

Thor trying to sound like a girl was going to haunt his nightmares for a long time.


End file.
